No, they haven't taken my kids away

...I've just been insanely busy. Would you believe this is the first night in about a week where it's before 10:30 and I'm actually home? The show I'm in opens in about a month and if I'm not dancing my butt off, I'm working it off in my retail location...fun times, I tell ya.

So it's been a beautiful week and the kids and I are definitely taking advantage. A few weeks ago, a friend of mine suggested we start meeting at a local park on the water. Now, the last time I had been to this park was back when I worked for the local paper and "cleanup days" were held every spring, because the place was a wreck. I'm talking garbage washed up on the shore, graffiti everywhere, messed up playground equipment...and I listened to my friend telling me she liked it better than Posh Playground the next town over and thought she was out of her mind.

Well.

We went this week...

...and it is beautiful!

 I have no idea when the park was transformed, but it definitely looks different than I recall. Don't get me wrong, the graffiti is still there, but hey, it looks like someone tried to scrub it off and my kids can't read yet so we're rolling with it. We've been back several time this week - the girls love running on the sand (okay, Anna loves rolling in it so there's a small beach in my back seat) and the different equipment, and the day I took them over the retaining wall so they could walk along the actual shore line (okay, bay line, whatever) they were in heaven. Anna still thinks she's going to catch a sea gull and delights in chasing them.

Please don't catch any gulls, or, as a result, hepatitis...

I didn't realize how much they were enjoying themselves until they opted to go back to the park instead of going to the zoo. The zoo, people! The last time we went to the zoo, Anna fell in love with the seal and kept exclaiming "I see him! See! Him!" and waving through the tank. The seal obliged by swimming up to her over and over, and Anna has a new best friend. So for her to want to go to the playground instead...big news, folks.

Then on Tuesday I realized Anna could do basic addition (or maybe it was a fluke). We were running a few minutes early to pick Mary up at preschool, so I suggested we "look for horses." This also falls under the heading of "local pleasures that are free": On the state line are  couple of farms and if you drive along the back roads, you can see the horses out in the pastures (yards?). Anna loves to look for them and call out when she sees them, so Tuesday's drive went something like this.

"I see them! Horses!"

"Yes, look at the horses!"

"Two horses!" And indeed there were. We drove on. "Two more horses!"

"So if you have two horses and two more horses, how many more do you have?" I ask rhetorically, not at all expecting answer from my two and a half year old.

"Four," she said promptly. "Two. And an airplane up in the sky!"

Well, A for effort, kid.

Today she requested the horses again, so along the farm roads we went. This time, there was a large greyish horse next to the typical brown ones. I am completely farm animal illiterate so I have no idea what kind of horse it was, but it was BIG. Anna took this into consideration.

"I see horses! Two horses! And...I see...an elephant?"

You can see where she'd be confused. I corrected her but she seemed skeptical. Who can blame her? But it explains her earlier actions.

I mean, after all, when you've got the farm/zoo in your backyard, practically, I guess the playground is more enticing.